Not a Child
by Edmelon
Summary: Amu is tired of being viewed as a child. Honestly, she can fight perilous battles against X-Eggs and Easter and the like. She can take care of herself and if that isn't proof then she doesn't know what is! Short Amu-centred one-shot.


_Not a Child_

You hold a status when you're a child. As a child - amongst the youngest, newest generations in society - you are regarded differently by others than older people. You are precious, cute, innocent... Among other things... And most of all you are considered to be so abnormally special and exclusive that you seem to have a requirement for a certain level of protection. You are something to be cherished and protected until the inevitable hormones start to appear and wash all of that past innocence and nearly all of those other features away.

Amu, for one, has had just about enough of it.

See, Amu may still be young, but she is not a _child_. She may still be few in years, but she is not by any means less mentally on par with others and she _may_ be shorter than some of her classmates, but, then again, height is not defined by age - her mother is nearly a full thirty years older than her, but she is still shorter than many other women Amu knows.

Yet still Amu is lumped in that same category of those aged ten and under. Her relatives buy her children's books for birthdays; she's sent to see the child's specialist when she goes to the doctor's surgery; one of her teachers still puts stickers on her work when it gets marked...

(At least it wasn't from the stack of big, cartoon characters for the little kids that Amu knows is beneath the teacher's desk, but it still irks her nonetheless).

And she's still asked that bloody '_When you grow up..._' question.

She hates it all. She hates the way everyone looks down at her like she's too simple-minded to understand; like she cannot quite fully grasp the meaning of their words and therefore it must be essential that they speak so horribly slowly and clearly that half the time she probably would have already reached the end of the sentence before they did. To feel like she was still beneath the age of ten - it was belittling and patronising and God damned right insulting that she should be taken to be not yet a full person who was not educated and matured. But she most certainly _was_. Was it like a part of her mind was missing to those people? She who was grown enough to act on the student council - Seiyo's very own Guardian force - and, more impressively, fight perilous battles against X-Eggs and Easter and the like. She can take care of herself and if that isn't proof then she doesn't know what is!

Quite frankly, Amu was insulted. Especially when it came to those closest to her. And older.

"_Little girl._.."; "_Perverted kid_...", "_Such a child_..." he says - eyes twinkling with amusement - and Amu just wants to scream and shout and tell at him that she is absolutely, positively _not_ a 'child' or a 'kid' like he says, but she can't because he'd just laugh and chalk it all up to a little temper tantrum which she is adamant it isn't because - for the hundredth time - she is _**NOT**_ a child! So she just huffs and puffs and folds her arms in that serious manner, standing tall and raising her head because if she can look just a little bit taller then people might start to look at her as more mature and therefore older and an individual who should be taken seriously.

But Ikuto just chuckles, eventually laughing loud as he strolls off and cooly looks back over his shoulder;

"Calm down, my dear little Amu."

"I AM NOT A LITTLE!"

He laughs louder and Amu feels like stringing him up with his own damn violin.

She feels a even more annoyed that she whole reason Ikuto rescues and protects her and tries to get her to avoid Easter is because he thinks she is too young to be involved. It's the damned protection status again and Amu hates it.

But sometimes Amu worries that perhaps all this annoyance and anger is far too defensive - that maybe all of these strong emotions she experiences are just her child-like side (which she admits are still a part of her and furthermore are a part of everyone no matter what their age) screaming out in embarrassment at being laughed at and acting as a source of amusement by her parents. For example, when she mispronounced something in a humorous way or made a comment she thought was witty or when she spoke with such seriousness unsuited for such a small person and her parents would usually laugh before correcting or agreeing with her. But, despite only being a few years old, it had hurt her just a little to know that adults were chuckling at her when she had been talking or acting with such genuine honesty. She just hadn't fully known or understood each and every rule of communication. Why should they have laughed when she was learning? Why would she not be taken seriously jut because she was still a child?

Embarrassed and unusually effected with humiliation at the memory, Amu would sigh and shake her head.

"God, I can't wait 'til I'm not a child."


End file.
